


Under the Sakura Bloom

by winterune



Series: ShuAnnWeek 2020 [3]
Category: Persona 5, Persona Series
Genre: Canon Related, Day 3 Cherry Blossom/Rose, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, ShuAnn Week 2020, i'm not good tagging stuffs, maybe? lol, ren thinks a lot about stuffs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-25
Updated: 2020-04-25
Packaged: 2021-03-01 18:53:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,731
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23831920
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/winterune/pseuds/winterune
Summary: It's the first day of school. Ren is still confused and angry about a lot of things in his life when he comes across a street lined with Sakura trees, and a certain blonde-haired girl was standing underneath them.
Relationships: Amamiya Ren/Takamaki Ann, Kurusu Akira/Takamaki Ann, Persona 5 Protagonist/Takamaki Ann
Series: ShuAnnWeek 2020 [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1692301
Comments: 2
Kudos: 24
Collections: Shuann Week 2020





	Under the Sakura Bloom

**Author's Note:**

> My entry for the Shuann Week 2020  
> Day 3 Prompt: Cherry Blossom/Rose
> 
> I'm sorry if this is weird. I loved the idea, but I'm not quite sure how this turned out. I've been sitting on it for a couple weeks now, and I thought, what the heck, I should stop editing the heck out of it and post it so I can move on from it. 
> 
> It doesn't have that many shuann scenes actually... Just a little at the end, because I wanted to focus this piece on Ren. 
> 
> I probably could've written this better, but I don't have the energy to rewrite it right now. May do so in the future, if I'm not procrastinating.
> 
> Having said that, I do hope you enjoy :)

The door to the rooftop swung shut. His eyes lingered on it for a few more seconds, waiting to see if it would open again, but it didn’t, and Ryuji Sakamoto didn’t return. Ren sighed, leaning back against the stacks of unused tables abandoned on the school’s roof and stared up at the deep orange sky. But the glass and concrete obstructed his view and the comfort it had always managed to give him was nowhere to be seen. Ren’s lips pressed into a frown. 

Back home, he could look at it as far as the eye could see.

_ Back home... _

He caught himself, his heart clenching tight at the thought of his home.  _ They got rid of you for being a pain in the ass _ , Sojiro had said, and maybe he was right. Ren could imagine the look his guardian would make and the deep scowl he would find on that solemn face. His homeroom teacher had said that Sojiro had sounded angry when she called him. Of course he would be. Not even a day went by and Ren was already making trouble for himself.

Silent glances and hushed whispers from the moment he stepped inside the school.

_ I heard you got a criminal record _ , Ryuji had said. _ Everyone’s talking about it. _

Ren scoffed. 

Of course they would have known. Of course rumors would have started. What did he expect—that the situation here might be different from how it had been at home?

The judging stares and the silent treatment, culminating in his expulsion from school. As though he had always been the delinquent problem child the indictment made him out to be. 

Ren fisted his hands on his sides. A pain in the ass, indeed.

Far above him, a bird black against the sky flew, its wings flapping strongly against the gust of wind. He expected to hear a chirp or a squawk, like how he would hear the birds did at home.

_ Home, huh? _

LeBlanc was his home now. The cluttered, dusty attic was his room. It felt weird to say that he was going home but it wouldn’t be to his house. He wouldn’t find his mother waiting for him, or his father with his cold, calculating stare.

Overhead, the bird zoomed silently past without so much as a glance toward him. It would have been nice if he had wings like those.

*******

Ren stared at the ground, at the concrete pavement beneath his feet and his shadow stretching in front of him. The sun hot on his back, he took one step in front of the other, hands in his pockets, his bag slung over one shoulder. After all that had happened, he didn’t feel comfortable looking at the people around him. The bangs of his hair made it possible to hide his eyes and if he made himself small enough, insignificant enough, no one would notice him. Right?

But even as he wandered through the not-so-crowded sidewalk, expertly dodging the people going to-and-fro, someone still managed to bump into his shoulder, hard, and it made him stop.

“Watch where you’re going, kid!” the man snapped—a thirty-some-year-old, dressed in a sweatshirt and baggy old pants. Ren almost muttered an apology, but the alcohol scent made him pause and he glanced at the man over the rim of his glasses. 

The man’s face was red, and he was slightly unbalanced on his feet. Still, he seemed sober enough to make eye contact with Ren and the glare the man sent him was enough to make any other person freeze. 

_ Drinking in daylight, huh _ , Ren scoffed. 

He would have forgiven him, would have ducked his head and walked away, had the man not come quick and grabbed the lapels of his uniform, pulling it taut. “Did you just laugh at me?!” 

He was too loud; some of the people around them had stopped to look. Ren scowled, meeting the man’s glare with one of his own. “Get your hands off me,” he muttered. 

The man paused, followed by a sneer. “Cheeky brat,” he seethed, tightening his grip on Ren. “Aren’t you supposed to apologize when you did some wrong?” Ren gritted his teeth but refrained from rolling his eyes. “Didn’t your mother teach you some manners?”

_ Didn’t your mother teach  _ you _? _

Ren was tempted to talk back, to lash out and fight, because it had been  _ his _ fault for bumping into Ren. But the stares and whispers from the people around them made him stop and Ren noticed the two policemen patrolling the street. They hadn’t seen them yet, but they would, if Ren drew this out longer than needed be. With that thought firmly lodging itself in his mind, he slowly felt his anger draining out, and he hung limp from the man’s hold. 

It wasn’t worth it. It wasn’t worth picking a fight with a random drunk. It wasn’t worth coming to the police station and having Sojiro come to pick him up. It wasn’t worth being pulled out from his probation only to be sent to juvie for some stupid mishap after only one day.

Ren looked down at the ground and quietly bobbed his head with a mutter of an apology. He felt the man’s stare for a few more moments, before the man let him go and shoved him aside. “Kids these days,” the man muttered under his breath. Ren heard a disdainful sniff and a scoff before the man turned on his heels and went on his way.

He lifted his head and stared hard at that retreating back as it slowly disappeared into the crowd. But the whispers pulled his attention back to the present and, noticing their scorn, Ren wished he’d worn a jacket with a hood on to escape them. Of course, everything would be the  _ kid’s _ fault for getting in the adults’ way. 

He quickly ducked his head and continued on his way to the subway.

*******

_ Rebel’s soul. _

Ren was about to turn around a corner when a deep familiar voice made him pause. He looked around, but no one seemed to be talking to him. 

_ I am the rebel’s soul that resides within you. _

It took a moment to realize that the voice was in his head—the voice he had heard in that castle, rising to the surface from the back of his mind. The conversation he had had with Ryuji on the rooftop came back to him. The castle, the monsters, and…his teacher, dressed in nothing but his underwear and a long furry red cape like something that came out of a comic book or video game. Ryuji had tried to convince himself that it was only a dream, but was it really?

Ren reached up to a sore spot on his temple. It still smarted from the hit he had taken by one of those armored guards. There was that weird cat, too,  _ talking  _ and  _ walking _ on two legs.

And then…Persona, was it?

Ren took his hand out of his pocket and stared at his palm, clenching and unclenching it slowly. There had been a dagger there. He remembered the feel of the leather hilt, the fluid movement his body had made.

_ Arsene. _

It had been a brief moment, but a surge of power he had never known before had coursed through his body. It had made him feel as though nothing was impossible. As though for once, he could actually help someone. 

“Persona, huh?” Ren murmured, curling his fingers into a fist. 

A sudden strong gust of wind broke through his reverie, flapping his hair and clothes. It moved upward, and as Ren shielded his eyes, a sweet scent he hadn’t noticed before teased his senses. Ren looked up and caught his breath in his throat. Sakura trees lined the street, their long branches spreading far and high, creating an arching canopy over the entire length of the street, making it seem as though he was inside a tunnel of cherry blossoms.

He didn’t remember this street. Had he made a wrong turn somewhere? But even as a part of him was telling him that he shouldn’t dally any longer, Ren was rooted to the spot, his gaze entranced by the dancing pink flowers on the wind. Countless petals had broken free from their branches and Ren watched as they slowly rained down all around him.

Now that he thought about it, he hadn’t taken the time to stop and see them this year—the flower-viewing festival. A stray petal fell into his line of sight and Ren caught it in his palm. Fragile; transient; these flowers never lasted long, yet when they bloomed, they always looked so grand and spectacular. 

His lips parted into a small smile. 

Maybe he would keep it and press it as a memento of his first day at school.

Putting the sakura petal in his pocket, Ren was about to turn around and leave when a figure a few ways ahead of him caught his attention. She was standing straight, looking up at the trees, her face in profile. There was no mistaking it—that twin-tailed blonde hair. Not when he had been sitting behind her all throughout the rest of their class. Not when she had made such an impression on him that morning when they were taking shelter from the rain. 

And just like that morning, time seemed to stop. 

_ Takamaki, was it? _ He thought he had heard the girls whisper that name.

Sakura petals rained down all around her, but she didn’t seem to notice them. Her lips were drawn, and her jaw was set, her eyes hard as they stared up at the flowers above her. She had that faraway look, as though she wasn’t seeing what was in front of her at all.

Ren found himself wondering what her eyes perceived that he could not—what thoughts occupied her head, what sorts of feelings resided in her heart. A facade. That was what it looked like. A deep-seated pain hiding behind that brave face. It was a feeling he knew all too well. 

As though noticing someone watching her, Takamaki looked his way and their eyes met. A second seemed to last an eternity and the momentary surprise he caught on her face was quickly replaced by a frown. Not so much as an exchange of greeting. Ren watched her turn on her heels and walk away.

There was an urge to follow her, and talk to her, and listen to her. But Ren’s feet would not move and as he stared at her receding back, he wished for that power to help right then and there. 

* * *

“Hm? What’s this?”

Ann had come to LeBlanc to hang out with him in his room. They had borrowed an action-clip movie from the rental shop in Shibuya and had just finished watching it. She was supposed to go home, and Ren was supposed to take her to the station, but the heavy clouds that had gathered since early in the day finally broke and rain was pouring fast and hard, like a thick silver sheet, pounding against rooftops and pavements. His attic window would rattle once in a while from the storm raging outside. 

Ren was lying on his bed, scrolling through his phone, when Ann picked up a notebook while scouring his shelf. A plain brown notebook he had gotten from Sojiro, and Ann had opened it to the very first page. A single flower petal lay there, the color a faded pink, pressed flat.

Heat spread up his face so fast as an internal alarm glared bright red in his head. “ _ That’s _ —”

“I didn’t know you press flowers, Ren,” she was saying, but Ren had leaped from his bed and snatched the book from her hands, closing it shut and hiding it behind his back.

In the span of a moment, Ann’s look of surprise quickly turned to confusion and then to curiosity. She grinned, her hand darting behind him, trying to take the book back, but Ren was faster, and he immediately held it high out of her reach.

“Oh, come on! You’re making me curious.”

“It’s nothing,” Ren dodged her question.

“If it’s nothing, then you can at least let me see it.”

“It’s just a flower,” he tried to say.

“Right. So what’s the big deal?” Ann asked, standing back with hands on her hips. “It’s not like it’s a memento of a first love or something, right?”

A joke. That was a joke, and Ren knew that, but that hit too close to home that Ren instinctively looked away. He immediately regretted that decision when he noticed the shock registering on her face. “It is?”

“No, wait, Ann, that’s not—”

The deep scowl on her face was enough to tell him just how annoyed she was. Of course she would be upset. She was his girlfriend and yet he just told her that he had kept something to remember his first love—which wasn't entirely wrong either, because that first love was…

Ren looked away. “It’s not what you think,” he muttered.

“Yeah?” Arms crossed, the hard stare she was giving him was unforgiving.

“It’s just…I mean—” Ren fidgeted. Did he really have to tell her about it?

Ren met her glaring eyes, gulping nervously at the decision he was making. He slowly brought the book down. “It’s the journal Sojiro gave me,” he muttered. “For my probation.”

Now that he thought about it, why the hell did he even stick the flower in a book he would have to return to Sojiro someday? He hadn’t written any embarrassing passages in it, right? That would have been the stupidest thing he had ever done.

Ren held his breath and opened the book to the very first page. The pressed sakura petal lay there. Other than that, it was devoid of any weird scribble—thank God! Just a date at the top and a short description:

_ Monday, April 11th, first day of school. An accident made me late. Got scolded by the homeroom teacher and Sojiro. But I saw the sakura, so that’s something. _

So much had happened that day, and judging from the barely legible writing, he had probably been too tired to write a proper entry. Not that he could say anything about the Palace he had accidentally gotten in with Ryuji. But…he silently patted himself on the back for not talking about how Ann Takamaki had occupied most of his thoughts for the rest of that day.

“First day of school?” Ann read the entry. She looked up at him with a frown. “Hey, you said it was your first love!”

He never actually said it, but—

“You sound disappointed,” he said.

A pause, and Ren saw her cheeks turning pink. She cleared her throat and looked away, suddenly finding interest in another book on the shelf. Ren stared at her back and when the thought slipped into his mind, he couldn’t stop thinking about it.

“Were you hoping it’d be you?”

Ann’s hand, which was poised to grab one of the books from its place, stilled. Ren could almost hear her words before she even said them herself: “So what if I was?”

He snorted a laugh before he could stop himself, making Ann whip her head at him with a pout and a glare. “Sorry, sorry, it’s just…” his voice trailed off. 

Just like how the sky had been a balm to his wounds, looking at the sakura petal in his journal would soothe his mind, when too many things were going on in his life and too many thoughts occupied his head. Because it reminded him of that moment—that brief encounter under the sakura bloom, when a new resolution formed in his heart. Ren doubted Ann remembered it. She would probably never know how seeing her there had made a difference in his life. 

He looked at the journal, then held it out to her. “Do you wanna read it?”

Ann looked up at him, eyes widening in surprise. “What? Really?”

Ren nodded, feeling his face split into a grin. “A warning, though—it’s boring, since I keep most of our phantom thieving out of it.

That elicited a sweet laughter from her. “Well, I’d still be interested with or without the phantom thieving.” 

**~ END ~**

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading :) I hope you enjoyed it. Please leave a comment or two if you like, I'd love to now what you think. Thanks! ^^


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